HOW TO BRING UP CHILDREN RESPECTABLY.
Chapter I. Friends and Men of New Zealand,— I had a word for you in the newspaper for May about Children, how they might live. This is also a word about those children, how they are to live estimably, for it is proper that our children should be respected after we are gone. Our respectability is greater than it was formerly, and so let that of our children be greater than ours. It is so with the free nations of the world, their importance increasing from generation to generation. The rangatiratanga of our ancestors was small, bnt it has gone on continually increasing, both for ourselves and our children. Did it not grow, what would be the consequence? Did it not grow, it would become little, and go on decreasing and decreasing, until there was none left, and his chieftainship would be entirely lost, Thus has been lost the rangatiratanga of some great nations of former times; and hence it is I advise that the rangatiratanga ofourchildien should not be lost, but rather that it should grow and increase, and become fixed. Now, let us remember that God is the chief- Rangatira, and that he is the mainspring of that nobility with which man is endowed, and that He will dispense it for the greatness of the people. But God has said that man must obey, and carry out those principles whbh he has made known to that end, if ever he would become a rangatira.
And, Therefore, 1 say, let the principles be written down, whereby our children are to become Rang;>tiras, viz., Truth, Obedience, Justice, Knowledge, Work, Good Conduct, Void of Debt, Peace, Kindness, Christianity. Let these be written that vou may understand. The Lawful Marriage of the Parents.— Look ai Maiachi, 2 c., 15 v., "And did not he make one? And wherefore one/ That lie might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth." Look also at Matthew, 19 c., 4, 5, 6, v.. Have ye not read, that lie which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore, they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." x have said to you, thai God is the root of nobility, and that by adopting his laws, we are to become rangatiras. So also let this good system of marriage be right and straight This method was from the beginning. God did not make two men for one woman, nor did God make two women for one man. But He created one-one man and one woman. And why one? Was it for want of power? Why, his was the strength and the greatness of spirit, whereby he could have created many more. But no, he was not good to do so. He desired that the husband should be one, and the wife one, that there might grow up a godly seed, a noble offspring, that is, that the children might become rangalira. Now, as it was in the beginning, so let it ever be: if a man adopt a different plan, what will be the result? will either that man or his children become rangalira? Not at all. That man will belike the beasts without understanding, and his children will be like bastards. If there are two women for one man, do you think that his children are rangalira? No, no. This way is not of God, nor is this a rangalira way. But let there be one, one husband and one wife, and let them two protect their own children, and maintain their own children, and instruct their own children, and increase the respectability of of their own children. But the unlawful way of having two is a way of confusion, a wrong system, one of disagreement and jealousy and disgust, and which will altogether destroy the respectability both of parents and children. And so let the marriage be correct •_ let there be no unlawful
marriage, let ihere be no stolen marriage, and let their be no sleeping together without being married. Bnt rather let them be right according to the principle of love, that one may love the other; and also correct, right belore marriage, and right after it. The adulterous marriage is bad! Fornicaiion first and marriage afterwards is urongl Maori sleeping first and marriage afterwards is wrong! but let the marriage be holy, and holy for ever, About the dragging marriage also, the forcible marriage is bad : one consents and the other disapproves; one loves and the other is disinclined; and her relations dragging her away, after Maori fashion, to be married lo a man whom she does not love, whom she does not like. Such improper marriages as these are not upright marriages, they are not respectable marriages whereby your children can become rangatira. On the contrary, let the love be equal, and the goodness equal, aud the eonsent equal, and then they will be boih respectable, and always respectable, and band down their respectability to their children, according to God's purposes. But you must have constant respect to 1 those principles, lo the holy requirements: of marriage. Great is the sacredness of the marriage service: look at its words. Those •words cannot be annulled: although ihey may be trodden underfoot by man, laid aside by man, separated by man, attempted to be destroyed by man, they cannot be annulled, they cannot be lost; but, rather, perhaps, they will rise up against that man to destroy him, and to ruin his respectability and that of his children. Hence there is no rangatiratanga for some of the Maori children, because of the falseness of their parents to marriage. The holiness of marriage is trampled dpon by the parents, the love of one and of the other is destroyed, they quarrel together, those who were holily joined together by God part asunder, going away and sleeping away in different directions, without the least consideration for their holy marriage, This is not the system of a rangatira. Great is the offence of the Maori race to this holy thing, marriage: with the descent of this wrong to their children, confusion, poverty, low rank, and without any respectability. But remember the Word of God, he is averse to the pulling away whom he has joined together according to the holy method of marriage, let them not be divided, either by themselves or by another person: this is the custom of dogs, a base way, it is not the system of (respect-
able) men, and rangatiras, and its end is misery, calamity, and poverty. Friends, look here! look at the Pakeha rangatiras. There are things wrong amongst the Pakehas, but his great principle is, Set there be one, let there be one, and both cleaving together, and both true to each other, and both protecting the children of both, and both growing up in respectability, and increasing a rangatintanga for their children, with the approbation of God upon Ihem and their offspring. Now, here is a naLion of chiefs ; " Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people ■whose God is the Lord," to ennoble them, and to exalt their children, as they live in the performance of his great and holy ways.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MMTKM18610801.2.4
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 August 1861, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,259HOW TO BRING UP CHILDREN RESPECTABLY. Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 August 1861, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Tūnga manatārua: Kua pau te manatārua (i Aotearoa). Ka pā ko ētahi atu tikanga.
Te whakamahi anō: E whakaae ana Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa The National Library of New Zealand he mauri tō ēnei momo taonga, he wairua ora tōna e honoa ai te taonga kikokiko ki te iwi nāna taua taonga i tārei i te tuatahi. He kaipupuri noa mātou i ēnei taonga, ā, ko te inoia kia tika tō pupuri me tō kawe i te taonga nei, kia hāngai katoa hoki tō whakamahinga anō i ngā matū o roto ki ngā mātāpono e kīa nei Principles for the Care and Preservation of Māori Materials – Te Mauri o te Mātauranga : Purihia, Tiakina! (i whakahoutia i te tau 2018) – e wātea mai ana i te pae tukutuku o Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand.
Out of copyright (New Zealand). Other considerations apply.
The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa acknowledges that taonga (treasures) such as this have mauri, a living spirit, that connects a physical object to the kinship group involved in its creation. As kaipupuri (holders) of this taonga, we ask that you treat it with respect and ensure that any reuse of the material is in line with the Library’s Principles for the Care and Preservation of Māori Materials – Te Mauri o te Mātauranga: Purihia, Tiakina! (revised 2018) – available on the National Library of New Zealand’s website.